GP Review: Hamilton back in business

PRACTICE

Practice one - Friday am

The opening session lived up to the Hungaroring's reputation as a place of scant drama. Few came out at first, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button put McLaren into first and second with just after half an hour gone, and that's where they stayed.

Fernando Alonso's Ferrari was third, followed by Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and Romain Grosjean's Lotus. The latter's team-mate Kimi Rakkonen tried the squad's double DRS again, but its race debut would have to wait.

Williams provided a few bursts of interest, with Valtteri Bottas' strong performance in ninth place, and Pastor Maldonado producing the closest the session came to an incident when he went through the Turn 10 gravel dodging Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham.

Practice two - Friday pm

Rain was forecast for the afternoon, and although the sun and blue skies of the opening minutes suggested this was quite unlikely, teams heeded the warnings and got to work rapidly.

That was just as well, for a downpour struck halfway through the session. Most had managed soft tyre runs by then too, with Hamilton grabbing the top spot again, just ahead of Raikkonen.

There was a surprise in third, as Bruno Senna put Williams in the hunt just before the rain. The Ferraris and Jenson Button were next up.

Although it appeared that the rain would be a one-off, most decided to get some wet practice in anyway. Michael Schumacher possibly regretted this when he found himself crashing on a Friday afternoon for the second week in a row, skating off at the particularly slippery right-hander in the final complex and burying his Mercedes in the tyres.

Many other drivers ran very wide at the same spot, which stayed stubbornly wet as much of the rest of the track dried, but no one quite emulated Schumacher's fate.

Practice three - Saturday am

The sunshine was firmly back as qualifying day got underway. Red Bull hadn't looked entirely happy on Friday, but it was on strong form on Saturday morning. Among the quickest on both tyre compounds, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel ended up first and third.

They were split by Hamilton, who missed out on a practice sweep by 0.093s.

Senna's Friday result could have been considered a slight fluke given that he had jumped up there just before the rain and there was no way of knowing if he might have been elbowed back if it had remained dry. Saturday morning hinted that he wouldn't have done - the Williams was in contention again in fourth place, just in front of the Ferraris and Lotuses.

QUALIFYING

1. Lewis Hamilton

"It's been a really good weekend so far. After Jenson was able to demonstrate the pace of our car in the last grand prix, at Hockenheim, now for us to be able to come to Budapest this weekend and be really 'on it' is just great. Our upgrades are working. My feeling is that the start of tomorrow's race will be extremely important. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to make a clean getaway off the line and then stay ahead while looking after the tyres."

2. Romain Grosjean

"Qualifying was very tight and it was difficult to see where we would end up so on the front row is fantastic. We came here after a difficult weekend at Hockenheim and to be honest I didn't get off to the best start yesterday. We worked hard to improve things overnight and the car felt much better in practice this morning."

3. Sebastian Vettel

"It was difficult session for us. We didn't get into qualifying how we would like and the rhythm wasn't there straight away. We burned more tyres than we thought in the beginning, so we only had one new set for Q3. Romain was in reach, but Lewis was another step."

4. Jenson Button

"I was much happier with the car in qualifying today than I'd been in free practice this morning and yesterday. It's a pity that I just missed out on P3 at the end of Q3, because the odd-number side of the circuit is quite a bit cleaner than the even-number side. If I'd stayed in P3, it would have made it a bit easier to get a good start tomorrow. But P4 isn't too bad."

5. Kimi Raikkonen

"Not a bad qualifying performance for sure, but it's a bit disappointing I didn't go faster when it mattered. The car feels good, but I didn't get the crucial lap together at the right time. Let's see what happens tomorrow."

6. Fernando Alonso

"We were expecting a very difficult qualifying and so it was. We saw at least eight cars - two McLarens, two Force Indias, two Red Bulls and Lotus - running very competitively and therefore, just getting to Q3 was in itself a difficult target to reach. We did it and we also managed to slightly improve the handling of the car in the final part."

7. Felipe Massa

"Not an easy qualifying for the team. Both Fernando and myself struggled to put together a perfect lap, which can be seen from the fact we were quicker in Q2 than Q3. A shame, because in Q2, I had done a good time and I was expecting to improve still further, but unfortunately, I was slower. I suddenly had less grip and a lot of oversteer."

8. Pastor Maldonado

"My qualifying performance was quite good, especially in Q2, but then in Q3 I came across traffic twice. I am happy for the team as we both did a good job to put the team near the front so it's looking positive. It's going to be a tough race here but an important one as getting points is our priority."

9. Bruno Senna

"It's been a good weekend so far and I'm really happy to be in the top 10 for the first time this season. Q2 was extremely close but we were able to get through. I could have done a better lap in Q3 but I'm pleased with the result and having both cars in Q3 is great for the team. The car has felt consistent and our long run pace is looking good."

10. Nico Hulkenberg

"I'm happy to be in the top 10 but not satisfied with my quick lap in Q3. I tried too hard and made a mistake, got some dirt on my tyres and couldn't recover the lap. It's a bit frustrating because my laptime from Q2 would have been good enough for sixth on the grid. So I'm a bit disappointed."

11. Mark Webber

"I was happy with the car this morning, I was quick in P3, but I didn't feel happy on that last set of soft tyres in Q2 and struggled against my scrub time, which is a bit bizarre. The field is tight at the moment and it's disappointing to qualify in P11 obviously. Our race pace should be OK tomorrow."

12. Paul di Resta

"I think there was more potential in the car today, but I couldn't get the laptime when it counted during Q2. The main issue was trying to find track position and I had to push very hard on my out-lap to make some space, which probably took too much out of the tyres. It's a shame because we were very quick in Q1."

13. Nico Rosberg

"That was a difficult qualifying for us today, and we need to analyse why it turned out like that. Qualifying is always a compromise and I was focused on finding a good race set-up for tomorrow as we may have more tyre degradation on our car than others, but it is still disappointing not to make Q3 by two tenths."

14. Sergio Perez

"Basically this was all that was possible for us today. For some reason all weekend we have been struggling with the balance of the car and how to understand how the tyres work on this track. I feel on my car we made a big step forward in regard to the balance between free practice this morning and qualifying."

15. Kamui Kobayashi

"To me getting through to Q3 would have been a miracle today. We don't understand why we can't manage to get the tyres to work at this track, and this goes for both compounds as I can't find the grip I need. Perhaps it is track related and has to do with bumps or dust or even something else."

16. Jean-Eric Vergne

"I feel I got the most out of the car we have at the moment and don't think I could have gone much quicker. We improved our performance in the dry conditions and got a bit closer to those guys ahead of us. It's always hard to overtake here, but there are many factors to take into account at this track, including tyre degradation."

17. Michael Schumacher

"We have to clearly see that we did not have the pace to be in the front. I could have done a faster lap probably, without the dust having been brought to the track by Maldonado, but then I still do not think it would have brought me into Q3. I don't think we could have done much more. This morning we practised for long runs as yesterday we could not do that due to the rain but I don't think it compromised our performance. You have to accept the gap is quite big."

18. Daniel Ricciardo

"It's frustrating and a bit disappointing not to have made the cut to Q2, as this is the first time I've been stuck in Q1 all season and it would have been nice to keep that sheet clean. The time I set on my first run on the prime tyre was not too bad, but I was not completely happy with the car so we made a few changes before the option run. It immediately felt pretty good but as I came down the main straight, I had a Lotus come out the pits in front of me and it stayed there for most of my lap."

19. Heikki Kovalainen

"In qualifying I think I got as much out of the car as I could today. I'm very happy with that last lap, as we made no mistakes and I'm pleased with the final balance of the car. It could get interesting if there are showers, but overall I feel we're making the most of what we've got and we just need to work on improving the performance of the car."

20. Vitaly Petrov

"The day started well with the changes we made overnight improving the overall handling of the car. In qualifying I think we made exactly the right calls on strategy and with the decision to do two runs on the option tyres. I had a good first run but on my second run we went for one flying lap to make the most of the track conditions and unfortunately I ended up losing time in Turn 11 which affected my final laptime."

21. Charles Pic

"On the whole, I am quite happy with my qualifying today. On the first set of soft tyres it was not easy as I made and adjustment to the front flap and experienced a lot of vibration. On the second set I was much happier with the balance of my car but I did not get a clean lap, especially in sector one, much like Hockenheim."

22. Timo Glock

"Not a great qualifying for my side. The free practice three session was quite good but for some reason we didn't make the right changes between the two sessions. In qualifying the car was more nervous again under braking and turning in, so it was definitely not the right direction to take."

23. Pedro de la Rosa

"I'm happy because, step by step, we're improving. Today we managed to get down to 1m25s and we overcame the heating issues with the tyres. We were able to push and, if we're objective, this is our time. The Hungaroring is a circuit which I really like and it brings me good memories, but we have to be realistic and tomorrow's race will be a tough one."

24. Narain Karthikeyan

"In the morning I managed to make the most of the entire session and run consistently. Given the high temperatures today, the car was overheating a bit, so we had to make some slight cut-outs on the bodywork and that made us lose some points of downforce. That cost us a couple of tenths."

Starting grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car
 1.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
 2.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault
 3.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault
 4.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 6.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari
 7.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari
 8.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault
 9.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault
10.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes
11.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault
12.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
13.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes
14.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari
15.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari
16.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes
18.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
19.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault
20.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault
21.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth
22.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth
23.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
24.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth

RACE

Lewis Hamilton needed a big result at the Hungarian Grand Prix and the McLaren man duly delivered a well-judged 19th Formula 1 victory. He started the afternoon fighting one Lotus at the Hungaroring and ended it battling another, but always looked in control.

Crucial to his success was his fine start from pole, which meant he always had track position over the potentially faster black and gold machines, and the team's decision not to switch to a three-stop strategy.

Hamilton admitted to being surprised by his start and even had time to lock-up at the first corner and still comfortably hold the lead. It would be his only mistake of the race.

The McLaren completed the first lap around 1.4s ahead of Romain Grosjean's Lotus and the two exchanged fastest laps in the early stages as they pulled clear of the rest.

Grosjean had edged a fast-starting Sebastian Vettel wide at the first corner and the Red Bull's loss of momentum allowed Jenson Button to pull off a fine move around the outside of Turn 2 and inside of Turn 3 to snatch third.

Ferrari lacked pace around the twisty Hungaroring, but Fernando Alonso managed a similar move on Kimi Raikkonen - whose Lotus had a KERS issue early in the race - to take fifth. At that stage, only the top four looked in contention as Alonso quickly dropped away from Vettel.

Hamilton's lead was around two seconds over Grosjean when he peeled in for his first tyre change. McLaren's stop wasn't one of its best, thanks to a wheelgun problem, but a combination of traffic and a tardy stop for Grosjean meant the 2008 world champion actually extended his lead.

While McLaren elected to switch Hamilton from Pirelli's soft to medium tyre compound, Lotus decided to keep Grosjean on softs. That allowed the Frenchman to close, but a number of small errors meant he could not quite mount a challenge.

Despite Grosjean making his second tyre stop a lap before, Hamilton held his lead at the next stops, but soon a new threat became apparent.

Raikkonen had jumped Alonso at the first pitstops, helped by the Ferrari being delayed by a battle with the long-running Sauber of Sergio Perez, and had outstanding pace at the end of the second stint. Running a second set of softs, Raikkonen stayed out as first Button, then Vettel, and finally the leading duo headed pitwards.

With 24 laps to go, Raikkonen finally made his second and last stop to change onto mediums. As he rejoined, his team told him to use KERS as Grosjean and Vettel were bearing down on him.

The two Lotuses ran side-by-side, with Raikkonen hanging Grosjean out to dry on the exit of Turn 1. Second was his and he soon set about closing on Hamilton, now just over four seconds ahead.

Raikkonen was within the one-second DRS zone with 15 laps to go. He remained the McLaren's shadow for the rest of the race, but never looked like ousting Hamilton from the lead on a day when there were few on-track passes.

McLaren's Martin Whitmarsh admitted the team had been concerned at Hamilton having to run almost half the race on his final set of medium rubber. "The tyres were a challenge," he said. "We were more worried than Lewis."

Almost 10 seconds behind Raikkonen at the flag came Grosjean, just ahead of Vettel. Red Bull had brought the reigning world champion in from fourth, with only 11 laps to go, for fresh rubber. He rejoined just ahead of Alonso and closed on Grosjean at around two seconds a lap - and set fastest lap. He ended up about the same distance behind the Lotus at the flag as he had been before the third stop.

"Trying something different was the right thing," reckoned Vettel after the frontrunners suffered less tyre drop-off than Red Bull expected.

Also in the battle for the podium should have been Button, but his switch to a three-stop strategy hurt him. His day started to go wrong when he came out behind Bruno Senna's competitive - and long-running - Williams after Button's second stop.

That not only allowed the flying Raikkonen to jump ahead when he came in, but also helped Vettel push Button back to what would become fifth when Senna finally pitted.

McLaren then switched Button from a two-stopper to a three in an effort to give him a chance to come back at those trying to make their rubber last. It didn't work.

He came out seventh, which became sixth at the flag when Red Bull tried a similar strategy with Mark Webber, and Button spent much of the rest of the race staring at the back of Alonso's Ferrari.

"Not happy with the strategy," was Button's assessment.

His woes did at least help inform the squad not to switch Hamilton in the same way, which it had been considering.

After struggling to 11th in qualifying, Webber looked like he might salvage some good points when he shot up to seventh on the opening lap, running the harder medium tyre early on, unlike most others.

He jumped Alonso at the second stops and rose to fifth, despite a diff issue, when Button made his third pit visit. Then Red Bull chose to bring the Australian in again in the closing laps. Webber came out eighth, behind Senna's Williams, and was unable to make any progress with his new rubber.

Seventh was thus Senna's best result since the Chinese GP in April after a strong weekend, helped by brake duct modifications that improved the FW34's ability to heat its front tyres.

Felipe Massa had a quiet run to ninth in the second Ferrari, while Nico Rosberg completed the points scorers.

The Mercedes driver went from 13th to 11th in the opening lap sort-out, then gained another spot after his first tyre change at the expense of Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

It was nevertheless a bad day for Mercedes. Faced with rising engine temperatures, Michael Schumacher switched his engine off during start procedure confusion on the grid (that reduced the race distance by a lap) and had to start from the pitlane. The four-time Hungary winner was then handed a stop-go penalty for pitlane speeding before finally retiring.

Paul di Resta followed team-mate Hulkenberg home in 12th, despite being barged off the road by Pastor Maldonado at Turn 11, a move that earned the Williams man a drivethrough penalty and left him 13th.

In the battle of the third-year teams, 2008 Hungarian GP winner Heikki Kovalainen took 17th, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi's Sauber, which was delayed by first-lap contact, while Charles Pic beat Marussia's Timo Glock after the German suffered an early spin.

Up at the front, Hamilton has brought himself up to fourth in the drivers' table and believes he can catch leader Alonso, despite being 47 points behind. "This weekend shows it is all to play for still," he said. "If we can continue this kind of performance we can catch up.

"We need consistency and we need to improve the car still in many areas and I am sure we will do that."

Once again, though, Alonso maximised his F2012 to take a fifth and extend his championship lead over Webber to 40 points - the equivalent of a first and a third - as F1 heads into its summer break.

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

RACE RESULTS

The Hungarian Grand Prix
Hungaroring, Hungary;
70 laps; 306.630km;
Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time
 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes           1h41:05.503
 2.  Raikkonen     Lotus-Renault              +     1.032
 3.  Grosjean      Lotus-Renault              +    10.518
 4.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +    11.614
 5.  Alonso        Ferrari                    +    26.653
 6.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    30.243
 7.  Senna         Williams-Renault           +    33.899
 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    34.458
 9.  Massa         Ferrari                    +    38.350
10.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    51.234
11.  Hulkenberg    Force India-Mercedes       +    57.283
12.  Di Resta      Force India-Mercedes       +  1:02.887
13.  Maldonado     Williams-Renault           +  1:03.606
14.  Perez         Sauber-Ferrari             +  1:04.494
15.  Ricciardo     Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
16.  Vergne        Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
17.  Kovalainen    Caterham-Renault           +     1 lap
18.  Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari             +    2 laps
19.  Petrov        Caterham-Renault           +    2 laps
20.  Pic           Marussia-Cosworth          +    2 laps
21.  Glock         Marussia-Cosworth          +    3 laps
22.  De la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth               +    3 laps

Fastest lap: Vettel, 1:24.136

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Karthikeyan   HRT-Cosworth                 63
Schumacher    Mercedes                     61


World Championship standings, round 11:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Alonso       164        1.  Red Bull-Renault          246
 2.  Webber       124        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          193
 3.  Vettel       122        3.  Lotus-Renault             192
 4.  Hamilton     117        4.  Ferrari                   189
 5.  Raikkonen    116        5.  Mercedes                  106
 6.  Rosberg       77        6.  Sauber-Ferrari             80
 7.  Grosjean      76        7.  Williams-Renault           53
 8.  Button        76        8.  Force India-Mercedes       46
 9.  Perez         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari          6
10.  Kobayashi     33       
11.  Maldonado     29       
12.  Schumacher    29       
13.  Di Resta      27       
14.  Massa         25       
15.  Senna         24       
16.  Hulkenberg    19       
17.  Vergne         4       
18.  Ricciardo      2       
       
All timing unofficial

TEAM BY TEAM

Red Bull

Controversy surrounded Red Bull as the team arrived in Hungary amid stories of a switch that it was claimed could alter ride height being found in Canada. It had a muted Friday, but did lead final practice with Webber.

After qualifying third, Vettel was able to challenge for third position in the final stages of the race after putting on a fresh set of tyres for a sprint finish, however he was unable to pass Grosjean for the final podium slot and in reality was fairly anonymous during the race, showing none of the outright pace that the Red Bull seemed to have in Valencia, the last twisty track F1 visited.

Webber may be second in the championship but he finished in eighth for the second race in a row and the gap to Alonso is now 40 points. The Australian driver also failed to make it through to Q3, starting 11th, contributing to his struggles at a track where overtaking is difficult. He jumped to seventh off the line, got as high as fifth through the pitstops, but three stops proved the wrong plan and ground was lost again. The team said a differential issue made two stops impractical.

McLaren

Hamilton was dominant all weekend in a rejuvenated McLaren, controlling the race from the front in dry conditions that suited the car. Having taken pole position by 0.413s, Hamilton made a good start and was able to put enough of a gap between himself and Grosjean to alleviate danger in the early stages.

Hamilton was able to hold off Raikkonen after the final set of pitstops, showing strong pace in the final sector before the DRS zone on the pit straight.

Meanwhile, Button was less happy with his qualifying performance (fourth place), saying that he was unable to find the perfect balance but that he expected his race pace to be better. In reality, after getting past Vettel to third on lap one, Button went backwards in the race - struggling with traffic, in particular when he got stuck behind Senna after the team brought him into the pits. He cleared Senna during the final set of stops but could only finish sixth, three stops having turned out to be an incorrect choice.

Lotus

Lotus was once again viewed as the dark horse at the Hungaroring, although the eventual challenge for victory came from Raikkonen, not Grosjean despite the French driver starting from second on the grid and presenting the larger threat early on.

Raikkonen leapfrogged Grosjean in the final set of pitstops by running long and showing great pace on softs, then caught Hamilton quickly on fresh tyres in hot conditions that suit the Lotus. However, the Finn was unable to get close enough in the final sector to take advantage of the DRS zone, not helped by a KERS problem.

Grosjean held on from Sebastian Vettel to round off the podium positions.

Ferrari

After Alonso's win in Germany Luca di Montezemelo said that he was concerned for the second half of the season due to the pace that other teams showed. The Hungaroring result will add to his fears. Alonso was once again faster than Massa, but the Brazilian was closer to the Spaniard in qualifying, the two drivers lining up in sixth and seventh on the grid.

In the event Alonso made up one place for fifth in the race and Massa went backwards, finishing in ninth position, neither Ferrari driver looking like they were genuine challengers at any point.

The saving grace for Alonso is that Webber finished behind him and he now leads the championship by 40 points as Formula 1 heads into its mid-season break.

Mercedes

After struggling in Germany and without the rain that has helped Schumacher qualify well at Silverstone and Hockenheim, the Mercedes frailties were exposed in Hungary, with both drivers failing to get through to Q3 and only Rosberg snatching a single point in the race.

Schumacher in particular struggled after his final qualifying lap was ruined, meaning he started in 17th. He then triggered an aborted start by lining up incorrectly, before switching his engine off on the grid, getting a puncture and incurring a drivethrough penalty for pitlane speeding. His race eventually ended in retirement as the team decided his plight was futile - especially given telemetry and engine temperature worries.

Rosberg did not encounter the same number of issues as his older team-mate, but the underlying lack of speed of the Mercedes meant he was unable to do better than round out the top 10.

Sauber

After a generally tough build-up, once again Sauber attempted a one-stop strategy with Perez, but on this occasion he was not able to make the tyres last on a day when his was far from the fastest car.

Perez ended the race in 14th position while Kobayashi was halted two laps from the end with a hydraulic leak. Both drivers agreed that they could not have scored any points based on the Sauber's underlying performance through the weekend, but vowed to fight back at Spa.

Williams

Maldonado was punished for another collision while Senna showed a turnaround in his form in Hungary.

The pair both made it into Q3 with Senna lining up behind his team-mate in ninth, but citing new front brake ducts as the reason for his improved showing after struggling in qualifying in 2012. Senna kept out of trouble and has now scored points in more races than Maldonado, who was 13th after his penalty for oversteering into di Resta.

At the flag Senna was seventh, holding off Webber by under a second, while Maldonado ended up behind di Resta in 13th.

Once again the Force India drivers were relatively evenly matched, finishing only five seconds apart at the flag after 69 laps.

Hulkenberg crept into Q3 to line up in 10th position and Paul di Resta started 12th. Unfortunately for Hulkenberg he dropped out of the points at the flag for 11th position with di Resta trailing him in 12th.

The young Toro Rosso duo proved to be anonymous in Hungary, but the fact that Vergne and Ricciardo were in 15th and 16th position at the flag showed that the pace of their car was not good enough to challenge for points.

Ricciardo and Vergne both made up places at the start, but Ricciardo could not hang on to the Force India of di Resta and Vergne dropped back after starting on a used set of option tyres. Vergne was then forced to pit in the late stages after picking up debris in his sidepod, causing overheating issues.

Kovalainen and Petrov both said that the Caterham felt better in Hungary than it had done previously. Despite this they were unable to break out of Q3 or challenge the Toro Rossos.

Kovalainen once again outqualified Petrov, with the pair starting from 19th and 20th positions respectively.

In the race Kovalainen was classified two places ahead of Petrov in 17th, but that owed to Kobayashi stopping very close to the end. Kovalainen said that his car performed well in the race but Petrov complained of a reduction in performance and balance compared with qualifying.

Glock was beaten in qualifying and the race by his impressive young team-mate Pic. The pair lined up in their customary 21st and 22nd positions on the grid and both drivers finished one place higher after Schumacher's retirement. Glock spent a large part of the race behind the HRTs after an early spin.

De la Rosa crossed the line in 22nd position and Karthikeyan had a steering failure five laps from the end on a day when the HRT was capable of holding off Glock's Marussia after the German's error.

De la Rosa still had Glock in his sights by the end of the race but was unable to pass him before the flag fell with the Spaniard eying upgrades in the second half of the season to climb off the foot of the grid. Meanwhile Karthikeyan said that there was warning that his HRT was succumbing to steering issues and in the end the steering broke at Turn 3, causing him to pull off at the exit and retire.

The Race in Action

Full race lap times (H)

Full race lap times (V)

Lap chart (positions)

Lap chart (gaps)